Rika sat on a chair in the waiting room she crossed her legs, thinking about the fact that other patients could possibly see her panties if she sat like she used to as a male.
"Am I cute?", she blurted out all of the sudden which made even herself blushing. "I... I mean, you don't have to answer me... but... I am curious... curious how I look to a boy, you know...? I might be starting to be attracted to boys... which actually scares me..."

She blushed madly and couldn't control her heart beat rising and the redness on her cheeks.

After a few beats, Takamiya smiled at her. "You're adorable, Rika. I mean you have lil horns." he grinned. "You're constantly horny." he chuckled. "Seriously, though, don't worry so much." he leaned back. "Chill. Nobody will know you're you. And if you're attracted to guys, well there's nothing wrong with that. Just tell people you're straight. You're pretty attractive y'know. People will be lining up to go out with you."

"Aoyama? Rika Aoyama?" a voice called. It was the secretary. "Your doctor is ready. Just go across and to the right. You should see a door with a name reading 'Dr A. Newman'. Just go in. He'll meet you."

Red as a fresh tomato Rika stood up and staggered to the doctor's room.
A middle-aged man sat on a desk with a PC-Monitor on it at which the doctor was currently staring at and typing things while Rika entered the room.
She directly steered to the bed that sat in another corner. Hopping onto it, she noticed it was tall enough for her to let her feet dangle in the air.
The doctor then turned around to face her.
"Ah, you're Rika, right? I'm Dr. Newman. Your boyfriend can sit down here, meanwhile."
"He's not my boyfriend...", Rika exclaimed.

After a while, the wounds on her leg were fully healed up by the healing magic.
"These wounds weren't deep enough to be a problem and won't leave scars, don't worry. Your otherwise perfect skin will not be tainted." The doctor laughed.
Rika blushed again and carefully slid down to the ground, now, finally, she could support her full weight, not that it was very much anyway, with her own legs.
"Thanks, doc! The pain is gone", Rika happily announced.

Throughout the appointment, Takamiya sat nervously, twiddling his thumbs and hoping that nothing bad would happen to Rika. Whilst he knew that complications in healing magic were unlikely at best, there was always a part of him that doubted, that worried. Doctor's surgeries in general always made him nervous. It was the cleanliness of the places, the unnatural smell of disinfectant.

When Rika finally stepped off the doctor's chair and stood on her own two feet with no signs of any side effects, Takamiya visibly slumped in relief. "You okay? Do you feel alright? Not weird at all?"

He ushered her back into the waiting room, thanking the doctor on his way out, and sat her down. "I dislike the doctor's. Let's go." he walked outside, motioning for Rika to follow him. "Where do you think we should go next?" he asked her. "We need to get some money for food and things. Do you have any in those pockets of yours?"

She walked alongside him and thought while rummaging the pockets of the uniform. A few seconds later she took out a blue wallet. "An ID, a lot of legal papers... and, like 250 bucks... this is pretty good... and my bank card's still here. I have a good amount of money on it. And I'll need it. I will have to buy a completely new wardrobe. Let's head to a clothing shop first. I will need some undies and PJ's as well as a few items of casual clothing."
Visibly this affected her more than she wanted to admit through her speech.

"After that... I don't think I can return home... Do you think, I might be able to crash at your place until we find a better solution?" When she asked that she had already jumped ahead a few paces and turned around to face him.

"Seems good. Don't waste ALL your money on clothes though. We need food and a way to get home, whether that's by bus, train or a rented car." he smiled. "We'll need to find out where we are anyway. 'Takamiya and Rika vs. the World'. I like the sound of that." he nodded. "So. First off. Where next? A clothes shop or a tourist centre? Do you wanna buy clothes or find out where we are?" he looked around. "We're in a pretty big city, it seems. The perfect place to hide is in plain sight."

At Rika's request, Takamiya looked surprised. "Sure. If we can actually make it home, that is. We have no idea where we are." he stopped for a few beats. "Do you recognise anything? Shops, flats, anything?"

A man walked past with his wife. Takamiya listened carefully. "Ogenki desu ka?" the man asked, to a reply of "Genki desu." from the woman.

Another clue. "Well. We're still in Japan at least, so that's good." he said. Accents, accents, accents... what kind of accent did they have? Takamiya listened carefully to all of the people that passed the two of them. He wasn't sure.

Rika looked around the place they were in and after a while, she confidently told Takamiya: "Nagoya, we're in Nagoya. I've been here before once, to visit relatives, you know."
She looked around some more.

"I know there are some good shops around that corner there", she pointed into a direction, then she turned around into the opposite direction. "Over there is Nagoya castle, a little bit behind it, my relatives have their house, although I don't think that really matters anymore, since they wouldn't recognize me anyway."
A little bit angered, she kicked up a couple of stones that were lying around on the streets.

"Nagoya. Nagoya, huh. Where have I heard that name...?"
He mused for a bit, thinking hard. "Oh! Didn't someone go missing from there a few years back? It was publicised all over Japan, wasn't it? Yeah... it was publicised because people thought they heard her voice when they went to sleep. They called the whole affair 'The Ghost of the Missing Girl'. I might not notice much, but I noticed that."

Takamiya paid attention to Rika's pointing. "Hey. Let's go shopping. You do know how to shop, right? Because I don't." he smiled at the girl, trying to reassure her that everything would be fine. "Don't worry. We'll find a way to get you back to your old self. And then we'll kick that stupid wizard's butt! Because he's an old pervert who wanted to see a girl and since he couldn't he forced you to be one. Okay?"

Rika nodded. "I've heard that story, too. When I last visited, my relatives even forbade their daughter to go outside late at night"

She looked around and spotted a Well known clothing store. "Let's get into there first. Don't wanna walk around in a school uniform all day long."

At his attempt to make her feel better, Rika simply smiled.
"I appreciate what you're saying, but we're dealing with magic here. What I fear the most is that I might like being a girl in the end and maybe even fall in love with a guy. I mean, I'm super cute and so this might happen earlier than I had hoped. For example if a guy keeps treating me incredibly well, I might actually fall for him..."
Rika shuddered again but straightened out to walk towards the clothing store.

Takamiya nodded. "Okay! Let's go!" he spun in the direction that Rika was looking and started to walk.

He paused at her second sentence. "Well... that wouldn't be a bad thing, would it? If you like being a girl, that's great. And if you fall in love with a guy, well, love is the best feeling in the world. It's like an adrenaline rush you have when you're running from the police whilst you're high on cocaine. Not that I would know." he smiled at her, and then continued. "At least - if the love is returned. If love is unrequited, it's like being stabbed in the heart a thousand times over and then surviving to suffer for longer, and as soon as you recover you get dunked underwater for six hours straight, and you still won't just die. Unrequited love is torture, it makes you go insane.
"But don't worry about that! I'm sure if you find someone you'll come under the former heading. Love is just fantastic."

Rika laughed. "This totally sounds as if you experienced both before!" She punched him in the side playfully and sneaked her arm around his waist. Another laugh erupted from her.
"I don't know if I want to love someone. Sounds lovely though. May have to try it some time." A cheeky grin appeared on her face as she entered the clothing store.

"If you want, you can choose one outfit you'd like to see me in. I'm okay with that"
She nudged her head towards the "cute clothes" department all the while grinning smugly.

"Psh, I don't know what you're talking about!" he chuckled. At Rika's punch, he lightly shoved her. "Don't punch me," he winked at her. At Rika's arm, he looked at her oddly and then slipped his own around her waist. "You should." he smiled.

"Aw, you know I'm terrible at clothes shopping. You of all people should know! Also, why are we going to the cute clothes section... the cute clothes section is underwear..." Takamiya blushed. "That I'd want to see you in? I don't know if I'll see you in underwear any time soon, ummm..." he was starting to get flustered.

First Rika blushed, but then she began laughing elbowing Taka's sides. "Oohhh, you do like seeing me in underwear, huh? Huh, huh, huh?!" She stopped laughing and walked towards the lingerie section. "I still need some underwear, so you have to bear with me here." She entered the girls section and looked around.
"Still, if I wear something, you have to tell me whether it's cute or not... gosh... I already sound and behave like a real girl here..." Rika giggled and picked a matching set of panties and bra, the latter of which, she almost didn't need, and headed for the changing room.

A few minutes later, she stepped out in front of Takamiya turning around slowly.
"How's look. Does it fit? I mean, visually."

"I mean... uh. Sure underwear is great and I'm, uh, sure you would look fine in it, but, uhh..." he trailed off, realising that he should probably just shut his mouth so as to embarrass himself less.

Takamiya stood on the outskirts of the lingerie section, not wanting to look like a pervert but still needing to stand near the changing rooms so he could tell Rika what she looked like when she came out. When she came out of the changing room, Takamiya blushed all the more. "Y-you look fine." he stuttered. "You even chose them to match." Looking at Rika's leopardskin underwear sent some weird thoughts through his head. "I th-think you should buy them. And then we can leave. Right?"

He back-pedalled out of the lingerie section and walked to the cashier. He started to make small talk with her to take his mind off Rika's choice of clothing.

She giggled as she went back into the changing room putting on her old clothes and then she took two more matching pairs with her and paid for them. Afterwards she tugged Takamiya along to the store where the rest of the clothing was sold.

She picked out a couple of sporty shorts and tops, as well as some pleated skirts looking a lot similar to her uniform's skirt.
Swishing past Takamiya, she disappeared into the changing room.
After a while Rika came out with an outfit similar to this:


"How does this look? Does this look good on me?", she asked.

"More shopping?" Takamiya asked, distressed. He could do nothing as Rika dragged him along. "I can already tell that you're going to be a convincing girl," he said.

At Rika's new outfit, he mulled it over for a second. "Well, it looks very bright," he told her. "I don't know. I think it suits you. I think. I can't shop to save my life!" he shook his head. "I don't know how you do it."

"Can we go now? Please? I wanna do something constructive like get you home, for example. Quick, get dressed and we can go!" he ushered her back into her changing room.

Rika shrugged and went back into the changing room coming out with the school uniform back on a few minutes later.
"Fine, fine. Just... just let me pay for this, alright?" Rolling her eyes, she went to the cashier and payed for the clothing.

Returning to Takamiya with a plastic bag she looked up to him and tilted her head.
"What now? You said you'd bring me home... but somehow I don't remember where I live... which doesn't sound really good to be honest... I don't even know which school I belong to... with this uniform..."

"Hmm." he thought hard. "You don't remember where you live? Nothing about it at all? Because I don't remember where I live either... that wizard either wanted this or the spell he cast on you rubbed off onto me, at least a small bit. Didn't he say something about you only knowing yourself as Aoyama Rika for the rest of your life?

"And I could have sworn I've seen that uniform before. In the news? Maybe? Posters around town?" Takamiya sighed heavily. "If that's the case then we need to find out somehow if anybody knows about this uniform. As much as I dislike people, we might have to talk to some strangers. Let's go."

"But we can't just go around asking people 'Hey do you know where the uniform I'm wearing is from?' That would be incredibly silly", Rika mentioned as they both walked down the street.
A couple of steps later, suddenly someone tugged on her uniform.
"Aoyama, Kurosaki? I finally found you. Get back to the dorms immediately. I know you don't like having each other as a roommate seeing both of your genders, but we're completely full, so evading doesn't help anything at all. I'll meet you at the entrance of Rikou High's Ichigo dorm, alright?"
The woman who spoke to them, a glass-wearing young, about 25 years old, one, turned and walked away leaving both Rika and Taka dumbfounded.

"Well, this explains why we're here...", Rika murmured.

"Huh." said Takamiya. "Well, I suppose we're gonna have to go to that school and find some information out. At least we're getting somewhere. Although... how did she recognise you? You don't look like anyone we know. Unless we forgot them too."
Takamiya looked uneasy.
"Well let's go." Takamiya grabbed Rika's shoulder and led her towards a tourist information centre. "We can see all that we need over here. Time to find out where we are in relation to the rest of Japan." he paused in front of the building. "I'm awkward but I'll try my best. Care to come with me?" he offered his arm to Rika. "Aw, c'mon. You know you want to." he smiled at Rika. "Time to take on the world."